At 20, BalletX is nowhere near done bringing the most exciting new ballet and choreography to Philly

In 2005, Christine Cox just wanted to hire exciting choreographers to make new work on dancers who, at the time, were mostly her friends and colleagues picking up extra work in their off time from Pennsylvania Ballet.

She had little idea that she was creating a Philadelphia institution.

“I was a really short-term planner,” said Cox, 56, whose contemporary ballet company, BalletX, is celebrating 20 years. “I just wanted to do the next right thing.”

She tried selling the company to everybody, she said. “People sitting in a picnic at Rittenhouse Square, someone at a library, someone I met in an elevator. I literally had postcards in my back pocket.”

Once at a fair on Walnut Street, she had her team blow up hundreds of BalletX balloons and hand them out. “And I’d see all these balloons, and it was so much work,” said Cox. “But you know, we were as a team, doing anything we could to spread the word, and we still continue.”

There was no way of knowing that the troupe she started with Matthew Neenan (who later left to devote his full attention to his choreography but continues to work frequently with BalletX) would one day employ 16 dancers for an almost unheard-of 52-week contract with six weeks of paid vacation time and a matching 401(k). Or that they would tour, perform frequently at the Vail Dance Festival, and have regular home seasons in Philly.

Cox would go on to commission 150 world premieres by 80 choreographers, launching some careers and bringing well-known dance makers to Philly.

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BalletX will be celebrating its two decades with a pair of retrospective performances over the next two weeks at the Suzanne Roberts Theater. The first week will include excerpts of works Cox commissioned in the company’s first decade. The second will include excerpts from more recent works and finish with a short world premiere by rehearsal director Keelan Whitmore.

In all, the performances will mark 18 works commissioned by BalletX, each in snippets of six minutes or less.

Until relatively recently, Cox didn’t realize the success she had built.

It took BalletX opening its own studio on Washington Street in 2018 for her to see it.

“When I saw the looks on people’s faces around the country, like, ‘Oh, we just opened up our own studio.’ Especially when we were in New York City. Suddenly everyone took us a little bit more seriously.”

A home of one’s own is a rare success in the dance world.

She is finally starting to have a longer vision and dream.

“I am able to now say, ‘OK, I think this, this is possible.’ I always say it with hesitation, because that’s my nature, the balance between humility and confidence. It’s a fine balance. I’m also a little superstitious. I don’t want to be like, ‘We’ve got it all figured out,’ and then the next thing you know, you’re navigating out of a pandemic.”

And yet, the COVID-19 pandemic helped shape BalletX, one of the first and more successful companies to do work on camera. The company continues to feature short films in every performance and will do so for the retrospective, too.

The first week’s performances will open the way BalletX launched: with the angel trio from Neenan’s Frequencies. The initial three dancers were Cox, Neenan, and Tara Keating, who is now the company’s associate artistic director.

“It was a couple years after 9/11. The lyrics in the music, the whole piece was just unexpected to me. We ended with this beautiful trio of this really lightning-fast, energetic piece. Matt just was so bold and daring … he would make really incredible choices that were not traditional. And I think that was really important in helping us define who we were.”

The program will include Still at Life, which introduced the now widely known choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to American audiences. It will also include a piece by Edward Liang, the artistic director of Washington Ballet, along with work by Jodie Gates, Nicolo Fonte, and Jorma Elo.

The second week will feature excerpts from Trey McIntyre’s Big Ones, which got BalletX featured on the cover of Dance Magazine. It includes work by Jo Stromgren, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Dwight Rhoden, and Jennifer Archibald. It will also feature the work of former BalletX dancer Caili Quan who, after launching her career in Philly, went on to choreograph for some of the top American companies.

At the end of the retrospective, Cox wants to launch BalletX into the future, with the world premiere of Whitmore’s work.

“I thought it’s really important to really end the night on the second program with what we do, which is the future. You know, we’re creating work.”

BalletX 20th anniversary retrospective. “Program A: The first decade,” Oct. 29-Nov. 2. “Program B: The second decade,” Nov. 5-9. Suzanne Roberts Theater. $65-$90, 215-225-5389 x250 or boxoffice@balletx.org